Cheap Four Chords & Several Years Ago (Music) (Huey Lewis & the News) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Four Chords & Several Years Ago

A solid, well-played, well-produced, infectious record!
Huey Lewis and the News have finally made an album that is solid all the way through, too bad it took an album of covers to make it happen. This record is the gem of this band's output. It is what it is: a fun romp through a bunch of old rock and roll tunes, tunes from a time when the roll was still included. Lewis' voice is well suited to the material and the band gels on this date like at no other time. There is nothing quite as nice as listening to a band that really knows how to play together as a unit and knows how to play the material. At least on this record, these guys understand that there is no small role in a good band. A cameo appearance by Dr. John on little known classic "Mother-in-Law" is worth the price of the album. Well, maybe not, but it is a nice addition.

---

Only for die-hard old-time rock & roll fans and HL&N fans
This is a cover album where Huey Lewis and the News pay tribute to the real fathers of rock and roll, and they do a great job. Apparently they used nothing but instruments used "in the good old days": no synthesizers, no drum machines, etc. It is just good ol' rock and roll. The best songs are the 2 singles, "(She's) Some Kind of Wonderful" & "But It's Alright," the semi-acapella "Little Bitty Pretty One," and the bluesy "Going Down Slow." Given that, it is less than what you'd expect from Huey Lewis and the News. The second half of the album is a bit slow - the songs are much better in concert. Besides that, it is a great collection of classics and a super tribute to the great ones.

---

Proud Member of the Huey Lewis Discography
An album filled with cover--er, excuse me, "tribute"--songs is usually a bad sign. A sign that the band or performer has run out of original material and maybe the record company is breathing down his neck for a new release, pointing to the contract that he signed. And even if that's not the case, if the tribute album is produced with entirely noble motives, it may very well sound like a bad night at the karoke bar--missed notes, flat singing or worse.

But that's not the case with Four Chrords, as I finally found out. I'm a Huey Lewis fan from way back and when this CD came out back in '94 I thought, "Oh no. This is the death knell for one of my favorite bands." But now I that I've finally listened to it, I know that I was wrong. Four Chords is a first-class production, handled by a group of singers and musicians who truly love good old fashioned rock & roll. I mean, their performance of "Little Bitty Pretty One" alone is worth the price of the CD.